About this project

$32,760

pledged of $30,000 goal

529

backers

What is Arcade Brewery?

Arcade Brewery is a prospective production brewery. We want to create a deeper connection between our customers and their beer. Our goal is to create amazingly delicious craft beer with the help of our customers. Our approach with our brewery is just a little bit different than others, we want our customers to truly participate in the creation of our beers. With design challenges posted on our website, our customers will create and choose most aspects of beer creation from packaging/label design to even the ingredients that go into some of our seasonal beers. We want our customers to have greater control over the beer that they drink. Plus, we like to have fun and want to deliver you an amazing experience through your beer.

Arcade Brewery is also collaborating with amazing comic book artists and writers to bring label and packaging design to a whole new level of awesomeness. We are currently working with the talented Tony Moore (The Walking Dead), Eisner-nominated writer Jason Aaron (Scalped, Wolverine, PunisherMAX), and graphic artist Seibei.

Where are you guys located?

Arcade Brewery will be brewing out of New Chicago Beer Co. Our partnership with New Chicago allows us to brew our own beer on their equipment to our specifications. This allows us greater freedom in the beers that we produce and will give us full control and ownership over the product.

What is Kickstarter?

Kickstarter is an innovative and amazing way to fund projects. If you don't know how it works, it's as easy as pledging an amount to a prize level. You get the prizes and we get some money to help us create our dream. Kickstarter has an all-or-nothing funding policy, which means we appreciate any pledge amount and hope that you tell your friends as well. Cool prizes, help start a fun brewery, what could be better?

How can I help?

Start a Kickstarter account. You can either enter your e-mail and create a password or you can sign in using your Facebook account.

Sign in to Amazon. If you already have an account, you are all set!

Pledge $1 or more (Your card will only be charged if we reach our goal)

Spread the word!

How will you use pledged money?

Starting a brewery costs a ton of money! We need all the help we can get. We have amazing ideas and talent to make this happen, but need your support. Just to give you an idea, here are a few things that your generous donations will go to:

Paying great artists and designers fair value for their designs and artwork

Labor costs

What about the beers and fun?

Arcade Brewery Signature Line:

We have devoted our first year to focusing on 2-3 styles for this series which will be available throughout the year. Our signature series will grow with us. Here is a list of beers we have finalized or are currently developing for this series:

♦Grapefruit IPA♦Honey Ale♦OatMilk Stout♦Kölsch

Six Pack Stories:

Our collaboration with the public and amazing artists will also create collaborative beers (beers inspired by the artwork on the outside of the bottle). Six Pack Stories is a comic on beer. An original story written across six beers by top names in the comic industry. Imagine buying a six pack and each beer is a panel of an original comic. Our first six pack series has been written by Jason Aaron with artwork by Tony Moore (beer style announcement upcoming).

Fun Stuff:

We are dedicated to creating a truly interactive experience for our customers through our online website and public events.

At arcadebrewery.com, our customers will have access to educational resources on home brewing, be able to track their favorite Arcade Brewery beers from "conception to consumption", submit and vote on label designs and recipe designs, as well as participate in our forums when they create a user account through us. There is more to come, but think of it like this: A fully interactive website where customers are in constant communication with their brewery, offering suggestions and feedback for bettering the product as well as learning about becoming better beer drinkers (or home brewers). Whew!

We will continue Chris' "Public Brewery" series, reaching out and brewing with the public on fun small batch recipes. Working with homebrew clubs, drink and draw groups, and others. We plan on creating fun and intimate brews from our experiences with the public. We are also creating a small mobile arcade which will travel with us to different events and festivals, highlighting the work of independent game artists and developers as well as arcade classics.

How did Arcade Brewery get started?

Co-Owner Lance Curran

Arcade Brewery spawned from an art piece created by artist Christopher Tourre called Public Brewery. For the project, Chris created an open forum and environment for communally creating beers. Setting up DIY experimental breweries, hosting homebrewing sessions out of his house and gallery spaces, and utilizing ingredients sourced from Chicago neighborhood, Chris decided to take the project to the next level in 2011. Chris reached out to his friend Lance Curran. The two had been playing noise rock together for a few years in the band Careful. Lance is a director at Threadless.com and his love for beer, comics, and creativity were a perfect match for a brewery such as this. Chris and Lance decided to partner with each other and in May 2011, Arcade Brewery was born.

"...Tourre is obviously a craftsman. His recipes are playful and seasonal--take, for example, the Arcade Grapefruit IPA, a golden hoppy concoction with a quirky grapefruit kick..." ~ Sophia Khan, Chicago Weekly

"The central theme for Arcade seems to be that everything around the beer is as important as the beer itself. As Curran said during our brewing session: you don’t just taste the beer, you experience it. That experience manifests in the crafting of beverage and builds out to include the vessel it comes in, the type of things people do when they’re drinking it, and the understanding people have of what it is they’re consuming." ~ Bryce Dwyer, Bad At Sports

"My favorite bit by far: “They’re working with the writer Jason Aaron and the comic artist Tony Moore to create a six-pack design where each bottle will have on it a frame of an original comic that relates to the beer it holds.” Seriously, how cool is that? Bonus: The comic artist is one of the guys who worked on “The Walking Dead.” It’s like all the stuff I like has been condensed into one product." ~Aleheads.com

Disclosure on commissioned artwork prizes:All commissioned artwork will be created at the discretion of the artist. All artists are open to your ideas, but may not feel comfortable with extreme material (e.g. violence against children, excessively violent/sexual material, etc.).

FAQ

Yes. All rewards have factored in domestic US shipping. We ask you to pay the difference with your pledge. If you live outside of the US, please contact us before you pledge and let us know what reward you want so we can give you a new pledge amount for that reward. We have created a document on our end to track this information. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions.

Contact us and let us know the two (or more) rewards that you want. Your pledge must be the total of the two reward levels. For example: If you want the $25 and $30 reward. Simply shoot us an email before your pledge (of $55) and let us know you want the two rewards. We are tracking this information on our end to streamline shipping when we have your rewards available.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $20 or more
About $20

Get your name engraved on our Arcade Brewery arcade cabinet. The cabinet will travel with us to different promotional events, festivals, and will live at our brewery. As always, you get all three stickers with this reward as well.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $20 or more
About $20

A download of the game POP for Mac or PC.

POP is an experimental game in the most literal sense. The game was purposefully built in way that explores a different approach to the typical game development pipelines. It was developed by first approaching the music and running with the first game concept that happened to emerge during that creative process.

This game goes perfect with beer and is a ton of fun. You'll also get all 3 stickers!

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $75 or more
About $75

Registers you for a home brew class taught by Arcade Brewery's head brewer, Chris Tourre. This class will be held at the Brew Camp home brew store in Chicago, IL. Basic and Intermediate all grain strategies will be taught. Also a fun experience for people new to brewing or who just want to learn how it all works.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $75 or more
About $75

Registers you for a home brew class taught by Arcade Brewery's head brewer, Chris Tourre. This class will be held at the Brew Camp home brew store in Chicago, IL. Basic and Intermediate all grain strategies will be taught. Also a fun experience for people new to brewing or who just want to learn how it all works.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $75 or more
About $75

Registers you for a home brew class taught by Arcade Brewery's head brewer, Chris Tourre. This class will be held at the Brew Camp home brew store in Chicago, IL. Basic and Intermediate all grain strategies will be taught. Also a fun experience for people new to brewing or who just want to learn how it all works.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $500 or more
About $500

You and 20 of your friends will receive a private party at Logan Hardware's Video Game Museum. Packed with classic game cabinets, you and your friends can geek out, drink some Arcade Brewery beer, and play classic video games for free to your heart's content.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $7,500 or more
About $7,500

Custom Arcade Brewery arcade cabinet (newer versions of the one you see in our video - Arcade Brewery Branding on sides and marquee) filled with games, t-shirt, stickers, buttons, and bottle opener. No international shipping.